Welcome to the Pregged pregnancy week-by-week series. Each week-by-week post is separated into three handy sections.
1. Mom – Section one covers the changes mom will experience and the things she may need to consider health-wise.
2. Baby – Section two looks at the development of the fetus and what’s going on with baby inside the womb.
3. Nutrition – Section three covers nutrition for each week of pregnancy so that you know what foods are important to include in your diet at each stage.
6 WEEKS PREGNANT – MOM
As the HCG levels continue to climb, the morning sickness can be really sickening and it’s no laughing matter. Morning sickness should be renamed ‘Anytime Sickness’ because there is no predicting when it will strike. The best thing you can do is to eat small, bland snacks, or clear broth every couple of hours. For many women, that’s the only thing that helps eliminate the urge to hurl. Some women swear by ‘sea bands’ which are wrist bands that press on a nerve that sends signals to the brain attempting to trick the ‘puke center’ in the brain to stop! Ginger teas and drinks may help as well. If your prenatal vitamin is making you gag, it’s fine to stop it for awhile during this time period or try crushing it up and make a smoothie with it. Even though you can’t see your belly swell yet, the uterus is pressing into the bladder which makes the toilet your next best friend. Even though you might be tempted to cut back on water—don’t—because the nausea will get worse. Instead, try a simple maneuver to completely empty your bladder—bend forward while on the toilet and gently push your fist behind your pubic bone to encourage any leftover urine to get out of there. Retaining urine in your bladder can lead to bladder infections. So peeing often and drinking a lot of water are essential throughout your pregnancy.
Baby Development
Can you imagine doubling in size in just one week? Well, it’s incredible—he or she even has a little stalk or tail-looking structure that will disappear as the tailbone forms. This blueberry embryo of yours has transparent skin and black spots for eyes. A pointed tip of a nose can barely be seen at this point. You can see brain tissue because the skull is not solid. The baby’s face is slumped over the protruding purplish heart 100,000 new nerve cells grow each minute. This allows for movement of the body in jerky spurts. You are a long way away from feeling any baby movements but’s fun to see on ultrasound. The liver is making red blood cells, and the pancreas starts to produce insulin. There’s a fantastic little factory inside you, and it’s no wonder you are so tired.
Pregnancy Nutrition Week 6
Cravings. Aversions. Gas. Morning sickness. You are trying every trick in the book to keep food down and avoiding those terrible smells. Luckily, for every sweet or salty junk food on the menu, there’s a healthier one that can make your taste buds and baby happy. You know you need protein, but you just don’t want to share a plate with chicken and fish. Try items like cottage cheese, tofu, edamame, carrots, yams, mango, peaches, and apricots. Drink up and remember that tea, coffee, sweet juices like lemonade are not appropriate ’drinks’—and keep things fresh and not too cold for the water.